| ???Johnson preserved Sunday at Talladega Superspeedway by spending most of??the race riding in the back of the field to avoid any possibleproblems.??Most of the incidents happened late, including the 13-caraccident that sent??Martin's car rolling upside down and also damaged????Gordon's car. |
| ???Martin finished 28th and Gordon finished 20th. Both were in the top????10??when the race was stopped with five laps left after Ryan Newman's crash that??sent him upside down in turn 3. |
| ???"I am feeling much better about things," said Johnson, who admitted????that??he was not sleeping as well earlier this week thinking about this race. "I thought I was going to lose points with about three or four (laps) to go. So to have it turn around and lead with points over????the guys, I didn't expect it." |
| ???Back in victory lane |
| ???Jamie McMurray's win snapped a couple of streaks. |
| ???He ended an 86-race winless streak, dating back to the July Daytona????race??two years ago. Ford and Roush Fenway Racing broke a 30-race winless drought.??Both last won with Matt Kenseth at California in February. |
| ???McMurray also employed a similar strategy as Johnson, riding around????the??back of the field in the early part of the race. He found his way to the??front, though, leading a race-high 31 laps. |
| ???Sunday marked McMurray's third career Cup victory and his second in????four seasons with Roush Fenway Racing. He's a free agent after thisseason and won't return to Roush. |
| ???"My years here have been good," McMurray said. "The performance??certainly hasn't been what I think either one of us (he and car owner Jack??Roush) expected. |
| ???"Certainly, I'll miss being a part of this organization, but you never??know. You might end up driving for Jack one day again." |
| ???As for where he'll race next season, McMurray was non-committal but????said "there aren't a lot of rides available." |
| ???Change worked |
| ??? NASCAR officials were pleased with the racing in light of a rule change??they announced Sunday morning. |
| ??? NASCAR President Mike Helton announced in the drivers meeting that????bumping or pushing a car in the corners would be penalized. |
| ???Bump drafting or pushing is how drivers had raced at Talladega butNASCAR sought to limit the aggressive driving. No driver was penalized Sunday. |
| ???Robin Pemberton, NASCAR's vice president of competition, said he liked??what he saw Sunday. |
| ???"This race is like many of the races that happen at Talladega," hesaid.??"A lot of good close competition. Once in a while you get a car that gets??over. It's about what Talladega is. |
| ???"There were times they were not four-wide when they might have been????in??the past and maybe not three wide. As the races progressed, many????of the??drivers got better and better about getting up to the bumper????in front of??them." |
| ???Roller coaster |
| ???Kasey Kahne's runner-up finish continued his unique Chase. He's either finished in the top 10 or outside the top 30 in all seven Chase races this season. |
| ???"The car handled good, which I think everybody's cars handle good here,??and we just kind of shot through there and had great track position on that (final) restart," Kahne said. |
| ???Pit stops |
| ???Rookie Robert Richardson, making his series debut, finished 18th for??Tommy Baldwin Racing. ... Denny Hamlin suffered a blown engine for????the??second time in the last three races. He finished 38th a week after winning??at Martinsville. ... Jeff Burton's fifth-place finish was his first top-10 finish since Pocono in June. This also was his first race with new crew??chief Todd Berrier. ... Joey Logano finished third, his fourth consecutive??top-15 finish. .... The 58 lead changes????were the most this season for a Cup??race. |
| ???CAPTION(S): photo - Associated Press - Greg Biffle (16), |
| Jeff Gordon |
| (24) and Mark Martin (5) draft behind BradKeselowski (09) and Denny????Hamlin (11) during the AMP Energy 500 on Sunday. |
| ? |
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